1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to fishing tackle, and more particularly to a sound-emitting, fish-luring apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Predatory fish do not just locate prey optically. Their sight is limited. Even in reasonably clear water, the design of the average game fish's eyes does not let it see anything more than 20-30 feet away with any degree of clarity. For the majority of warm water lakes or silty rivers, the distance light travels may fall to near zero. This is, perhaps, the reason that the many spinning and crank baits try to utilize a “flash” of light to attract the attention of game fish in the belief that a flashing light carries farther and demands more attention than a stationary reflection surface.
Sound, however, propagates very well in water. Some predatory fish can detect low frequency vibrations produced by other fish at distances varying from immediate striking range to several hundred feet or more. But, existing sound-emitting fishing lures have very limited success at effectively producing fish-attracting low frequency vibrations (e.g., 100 to 500 Hertz) within a small (e.g., less than six inches long) resonating chamber or generator. One, for example, uses a small bell mounted in-line upon the lure for resonance and it fails to produce a suitable frequency. Another uses complicated microelectronics fitted on the lure that are far too expensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,375 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,297 B1 describe sound-emitting fishing lures that use the water itself to produce low frequency vibrations within the most effective hearing range of most game fish. The fishing lures include outer and inner bodies mounted on a shaft. The outer body channels water through its hollow interior as it is retrieved, while the inner body rotates as a gating component that interrupts the flow intermittently and/or vibrates ball bearings in order to produce low frequency vibrations. The fishing lures are small (less than six inches long) sound generators that result in low frequency vibrations in the 100 to 500 Hertz range at realistic retrieval rates in the one foot-per-second to five feet-per-second range. Nevertheless, there are some size, complexity, and expense factors of the structure employed that remain of concern and so improvements are still needed.